Who does this guy think he is holding the creator's rating hostage 😭

Since getting into the hobby, it seems I'm a bit stuck on where to go next.

What are some of the more useful prints you have made recently? Were they self designed?

This will be a super long read so to those who get to the bottom then thank you!

Over the past month I have been working on this design and I now feel like it’s in a position where I can share how it was built, firstly I want to say that this is not a tutorial, there are a couple of things with the design that work ok after some tweaks but could be redesigned to work right after printing, therefore I want to treat this as a “how it was built” vs “how to build” post.

Exact specifications of the camera are as follows:

Case size: 100mm x 100mm x 100mm
Battery: 10,000mAh Mophie Powerstation
Camera module: Arducam IMX477 HQ
Mount: C/CS
Power output: 5V USB-C
Buttons: Sleep/Shutdown, FPS, ISO, W/B
Mainboard: Raspberry Pi 5 - 4GB RAM
Storage: 16GB SanDisk Micro SD
Ext Storage: Over 100mbps USB3.0 drive
Display: Waveshare 4” 720x720 HDMI
Battery life: Approx 8-9hrs idle - 5-6hrs Rec
Tilt sensor: MPU6050 accelerometer
Cooling: Raspberry Pi 5 Active Cooler

General design:
All parts were modelled in Autodesk Fusion with parts I mostly had on hand, I had to take extra care in adding ventilation to the correct places as I found the plastic to warp slightly if it got above 60 degrees, with the active cooler it now sits at no higher than 50-55 which is just on the limit but I haven’t encountered any issues so far. The battery sits on a “shelf” that is connected to the left side panel for easy access if disassembly is needed, a small cutout for the flat USB-C cable was also made so it also firmly holds the cable in place when removing or reinserting it. All side panels were made with a -1mm tolerance again for easier access when removing and M2 threaded heat inserts were used for all screws except the camera module. The Pi 5 and displays motherboard sit on another shelf at the bottom of the case which should allow for I2C usage for the screen (I couldn’t get mine to work for some reason but the pins align perfectly so I believe my unit may be defective for I2C), this allows for a cleaner design and lets the Pi sit higher for better cooling and IO access.

Assembly:
After all parts were printed, I installed M2 threaded heat inserts into the mounting points for the front, left, right and rear panels, also adding an additional 4 inserts for the display board and Pi 5 to screw into the case. The order of assembly was preparing the panels with their correct components such as for the front panel, screwing in the camera module and soldering the Dupont wires to the 3.3V Filament LED and press fitting it into the cutout at the top. I added a small drop of superglue to the wires to prevent them from pulling on the LED just in case. There is room to store any excess cable underneath the shelf that the Pi is mounted to so nothing should pinch against the case, I also made sure to connect both the USB-C power cable and HDMI to Micro HDMI adapter to the Pi (the adapter comes with the waveshare display and also fits perfectly as you can use the standoffs from the screen) and attached the displays USB-C power cable and routed it under the shelf at the bottom. The front panel was then able to be mounted using the 4 M2 screws.

I then moved to the rear panel as I needed as much access as possible for the GPIO pins so I left the side panels and display till last, I attached the 4 buttons and the USB-C output to the rear panel, for easier assembly I used a 60mm x 10mm magnet and attached all ground wires to it leaving one Dupont cable ground wire for the GPIO to prevent having too many cables in the system, all other cables were then routed to their correct GPIO pins, the USB-C output jack simply uses the 5V and any GND GPIO pin. Just for fun I also added a small vibration motor from an Xbox controller trigger to create a small haptic when a button is pressed or when a USB drive is inserted but this does need to be mounted to a part of the case and not a side panel. I then routed the cables as neat as possible in front of the GPIO (Making sure no wires come into contact with the active coolers fan) and mounted the panel to the case exactly the same as the front panel.

I then moved onto installing the display, out of the box the display and driver board are attached with very strong adhesive, I removed this from my unit so they were separate as it now sits under the pi, this is an EXTREMELY difficult task and I advise to take extra caution if you are to try this as you do run the risk of destroying the screen, the display also doesn’t use the typical DSI ribbon cable that connects to the pi, so you will need a 51-pin extension cable with a 0.3mm pitch followed by an adapter to reattach it to the screen. The extension cable can be routed again under the display board through the shelf so it comes out of the front of the unit and behind the camera module. For easier assembly I attached the extension cable to the driver board and then left the adapter attached to the screen. I then peeled the adhesive backing off and seated the screen into the top of the unit making sure to attach the cables in their correct orientation.

The left side panel was now ready to be installed making sure to insert the 90 degree USB ribbon cable from the display board into the lower USB2.0 Port on the Pi and flat USB-C cable from the Pi through the hole on the side of the battery shelf, this way the battery can be installed from the right side ensuring a snug fit once assembled, I left a very short amount of cable before sliding the battery in to make sure it had a cleaner look. (When sliding in the panel I had to make sure not to snag any cables including the display ribbon cable, I went through the right side of the unit to lift the display cable above the battery so it wouldn’t pull on them when it was slid into place. (I printed a small cover as seen on the left side of the unit to cover the USB plug for the screen)

Finally the right side panel needed to be prepared, this has a cutout for an extension button that connects to the Pi’s power button, this is where my design was slightly flawed, under load the Pi will sit at anywhere from 50-55 degrees, so as I printed my parts with PLA, I started to see the button warping and no longer making contact, I chose to print the button from ABS although I could have tweaked the design to make the button baseplate thicker as it is quite thin, however I haven’t seen any warping since using a different material. Since the button pivots up towards the Pi’s button, there is a small plastic block that holds the button in place at the very top of the button baseplate, this was mounted in the centre but again the button did not work correctly, since moving the block it works perfect every time.

Software:
The system runs ApertarOS which allows for easy external button management and also rotary encoders if you want to add any other accessories, it also features a Web GUI, WiFi management, multiple camera module support including IMX477, IMX585, IMX294 etc… and a magnitude of other features, to see everything related to the software check out their GitHub page as there has been so much development and time spent on making the software what it is now. There is great support for it too, any issues I encountered during setup or making adjustments were always solved by the community. The software is also updated fairly frequently to bring even more new features and bug fixes runs very smoothly on a 4GB Pi, Apertar do say you can potentially use a 2GB Pi but this is best used as a photo only camera.

https://github.com/Apertar-Studio

I made some tweaks to the software to map the buttons to their correct functions and GPIO pins, added a custom splash screen for the logo of my camera on startup and shutdown and also added the cameras name in the metadata of the images.

As mentioned above, there is a small vibration motor attached to the unit, this was made as a separate service on the Pi to detect button presses and emits a small 130ms pulse when a button is pressed, holding the ISO button for 2 seconds will send it back to “Auto” and subsequently the vibration motor will emit a 230ms pulse to indicate it is complete. When inserting a USB drive into the Pi again the motor will emit 2 400ms pulses. (Of course during recording the motor is disabled to prevent any frame shakes)

The status light also has a few functions such as blinking during recording and turning on and off when pressing the power button at the back. I removed the blinking during photo capture as it made no sense to have it anymore.

The power button at the back runs on a separate script, pressing once will make the display go into a “sleep mode” and pressing again will wake it up, as mentioned above the LED also turns on and off with the display, pressing and holding for 3 seconds will perform a safe shutdown on the Pi.

The supported resolutions for the IMX477 are 1332x990, 2028x1080 and 2028x1520, this is a limitation of that certain module, the IMX585 and IMX294 are both to my knowledge capable of 4K output. In 1332x990 and 2028x1080 modes you can select from 24,25,30,50 and 60 FPS however in 2028x1520 you can only select 24,25 and 30 FPS, again better modules will support higher framerates.

You also get the option to take still images as RAW DNG, PNG, TIFF, JPEG or to add a RAW DNG to any other file type. Video mode records in cDNG stills which can be compiled and edited through Davinci Resolve.

The camera also supports input and output devices although I have not tested them yet, I believe on my camera they will work through the USB3.0 ports.

As a final touch I added button labels to the back of the unit and a serial plate to the side with the Pi information, mount type, build date and revision number, then installed the Smallrig cheese plate to the bottom of the case, this is attached by 2 1/4-20 screws.

Again I would like to say I don’t class this as a tutorial but rather how I built it, if you decide to build one for yourself please DM me and I will be more than happy to send over the STEP files but please keep in mind that I have made some changes to the parts post printing so there are some things that may fit different or need tweaking. Also if I have missed out anything in this post please ask away in the comments and thank you for the positive feedback from my previous two builds! I will add pictures from the camera in the comments soon.

I needed a phone charger at work, but didn't want to just pick up the first one available from a webshop, so I decided to design my own using the Bambu Lab Wireless Charging Kit K012.

I definitely wanted to make use of the included N20 gear motor, and after a lot of thinking, I decided to turn it into a wind turbine. Wind turbines generate electricity, which complements a wireless charger quite nicely.

The idea was simple: place the phone on the marked spot, the phone starts charging, and the blades start spinning. It creates the illusion that the wind turbine is generating the energy to charge the phone (obviously, it's just an illusion, as the turbine is driven by an electric motor).

There were a few technical challenges along the way. The motor cable was too short to place the motor at the top of the turbine, and doing so would also have raised the center of gravity. In the end, I put the motor in the base and drove the blades through a long driveshaft and a set of bevel gears.

After four prototypes, the sculpture finally came together, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The whole thing is fully printable on a Bambu Lab A1 Mini.

What do you think?

If anyone wants to check it out, I'll leave the link in the comments.

Hey gang, I'm getting a ton of stringing with my Core One -- didn't used to experience this. I just switched back to a .4mm nozzle from .25mm to print some bigger terrain, and it's pretty rough:

I've tried changing the retraction speed and it didn't really help.

Any tips?

I have been working on a small run of display pieces that feature the 3 transformation masks and Majoras mask from The Legend of Zelda, Majoras Mask.  Some WIP photos show the masks in various stages of completion.

I sculpted the masks in blender, using the models from the 3DS version of the game as a base and then adding detail to increase the fidelity and find my own interpretations of the original designs.  I then printed each mask in two parts using a FDM printer, primed, and painted them (which is still in progress).

I plan to mount each set of 4 masks into a deep box frame, using magnets which I embedded into each print to secure them in place.

Any comments, questions or feedback on the WIP photos would be much appreciated!

Just Got the new A1 mini with Kg of white PLA and transparent PETG .

What should print first ?
And what should print to upgrade the Bambu lab set up.

A real, working desk fan: a 775 DC motor spins a printed compressor-style impeller, which pulls air in through the inlet and blows it out of the outlet flange at the top. A PWM controller in the base gives you a speed knob.

• 4 printed parts: housing, impeller, motor holder, base (~0.9 kg PLA/PETG)
• Housing needs ~256 mm build height and tree supports
• Runs on a 12 V / 5 A adapter, so no mains wiring needed
• PETG recommended for the motor holder (the motor gets warm)

I've been looking for a simple tool changer that i can use specifically for support material. i dont want to change to a new main toolhead/carriage, and i dont need it to be perfect. well i couldnt find one, so i made one.

The goal was a secondary tool for support material, that doesn't compromise the speed or quality of the main tool.

The toolhead is held in place by a 3-point kinematic mount with a pair of large 15*5mm neodymium magnets that pulls the secondary tool to the main toolhead.

Because it uses magnets it has some limitations, primarily speed/accel. I ve been able to keep 7.5k accel but speeds have to come down to about 400mm/s max, it has the tendency to wobble above 500.

On the flip side, magnets means very little additional weight to the main toolhead, only about 20+ gms, and the main tool can continue performing as well as ever.

hotend is a tz v2.0, extruder is a single gear extruder in a Bowden set up, just something I had lying around really. This is a compromise, but it makes it way simpler and is more than capable of doing good support material.

Overall I'm very pleased by the results. Been a couple hundred changes now with no issues. Each change takes about 10-15seconds. I'm still tuning in the purge to address some oozing, but honestly, this is better than what I set out to achieve by a good margin. Even did a simple colour mixing test for kicks and it performed pretty much flawlessly. Black is abs, white is hips.

its still a little rough around the edges, but it works well. in theory this could go onto any toolhead that uses a 4010 fan. im quite open to sharing the designs, but im terribly disorganised and not sure its worth the effort to get everything together.

Im not finished but I feel proud about how the works coming together

What started as a joking suggestion from my sister to print a running wheel for our tuxedo cat, Clio, quickly turned into a three-month engineering challenge. My main goal was to fabricate as much of the build as possible using 3D printing, relying only on wooden dowels, airsoft BBs for the custom bearings, and a bit of tension wire for non-printed hardware.

For the bearings, I tested my heavily upgraded Creality Ender 5 Pro to dial in custom components, achieving a smooth, zero-resistance spin that proved the machine upgrades were worth it. After printing track segments support-free, a worn belt on the Ender led me to transition to a Creality K1C, where I was relieved to find the parts from both machines matched with absolute dimensional accuracy, saving 4kg of filament.

For structural assembly, after initial interlocking pegs felt too flimsy, I designed a locking centre pin using the track's weight-reduction holes, providing the rigidity needed to support a 1-metre diameter and 25cm width structure.

Eager to see the wheel assembled, I threw an initial base together, which a fellow Creality Cloud user named Евгений Платов later helped refine to improve stability (Print profile in the model link).

A year later, I entered the completed wheel into a Creality Cloud pet supplies contest on a whim. To my absolute shock, it pulled in 8.5K views, 1.8K downloads, and placed first overall, becoming my best-performing model to date.

Over 6kg of filament later, Clio will hop on for a quick spin every few months just to justify its presence in the house, though she mostly uses it as an elevated surface to eat treats. She is worth every gram of plastic, and I hope other makers and their cats get to enjoy the design just as much.

Download my free model on Creality Cloud:

https://www.crealitycloud.com/model-detail/mega-project-cat-exercise-wheel

The build guide is also available in the above link.

Printing a simple frame in PLA with concentric top & bottom layers and 15% infil, I got these ugly gaps where the printer seems to go from a true squared off concentric profile to a more rounded concentric profile. Any idea how to square these off or prevent the profile change and avoid the gaps? It's one object, so there's no weird junction or anything halfway that should force a shift.

The rounded/ugly corner is from it pulling off the CF effect plate, so the final won't be with that, but I would like a smooth surface on at least one face.

Thanks.

Rattle-canned the black, airbrushed the silver and copper. Liberally used a dark wash around the low points and barrel.

It’s ok - came out good enough for my kids Halloween costume. If I were doing it again I’d keep those low points black. That was…a decision.
I also got a little too confident after doing the silver and didn’t mask anything off while spraying the copper…dark wash to try to cover up overspray areas.

Only technical problem I had was after I switched to the copper the paint seemed to puddle after spraying and the air the kinda pushed it around. Same settings - but in hindsight I think I was painting MUCH closer to the surface and possibly using too much pressure for that close-in stuff.

My mother wanted some items for Halloween printed and since I only have an elegoo Neptune 4 pro, I could only print them in one colour (i always go for beige) and then painted them up for her too. The results are better than I expected.

Tell/ show me what things you have printed for Halloween this year!

Modified from an existing design, printed in black/purple/blue silk PLA, keyboard switches installed, nail stickers applied to tops.

Could please someone explain me the health risk of running and FDM in the same room you spend around 10hrs a day and how to protect yourself?

I was thinking about getting an enclosed one, ventilate and clear it, but I’m worried it’s not enough.

Carrying case for my trumpet mic

Got tired of tangled wires and just the tedium of putting everything together. This was a bit more organized and I could leave things semi-assembled.

1) trumpet and open carrying case for mic

2) trumpet and mic set up. Lots of wires (the one that’s not connected to anything would be connected to my phone normally)

3) close up of case. Some design elements I had to consider were the gaps for grabbing whatever object as well as the compartment that was large enough for my headphones with a radius wide enough that the wires wrapped around it would not be too tight.

4) side view. more design elements: I wanted to access the iRig while it was in the case. So I had to design the case around that function. Had to rack my brain to figure out how the lid would open and what radii to consider.

5) lid tucked underneath. another design element: in its open state, it takes up a lot of room. So I wanted to make it so that the lid could wrap around the bottom completely. Thus, the double hinge design. I mirrored the side element that gives port access to the other side so that it’d be symmetrical and lay stably. Also hinges use filament.

6) closed container. One last design element: the closure is a snap fit and it was made so that it could be swapped out when worn.

7) close up of closure

8) Some stuff I messed up: the recess for the mic portion of the case was too deep (by 0.5cm which was just enough to make it really hard to pick up the mic). Rather than reprinting the body of the case, I printed an insert. Also, apparently I didn’t center the latch on the front of the case. It’s ever so slightly more to the right…

This project, which was meant to make it more convenient/easier to practice, took me a few days to design and print and I ended up not practicing at all.

So, i made a telescopic joycon (from original switch) adapter for iPad, and Tablets. This can fit from 7 inch tablets up to 13 inch!. This only uses a simple hardware such as rubber bands for the "spring", M4 heat inserts and M4 Screws. I'll also create a version where a heat insert isn't required! Best to use with mobapad controllers and alike. Im also planning on making it compatible with original switch joycons (as i don't currently have the original ones)